by Nancy Saengjaeng, DBS II, WRC
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) went into effect in July 2015. The implementation of WIOA gives state and local governments the opportunity to step back from business as usual and design services that are more effective and responsive for our customers. To inspire innovation around the country, last Fall the Department of Labor issued a national Customer-Centered Design Challenge (CCDC) to the public workforce system. Over 80 teams competed in the Challenge. Outstandingly, Santa Barbara County was selected as one of 11 winning teams to attend a White House celebration and learning exchange on February 16, 2016. Santa Barbara County was recognized for demonstrating extraordinary commitment to improving the customer experience in delivery of services.
All teams participated in a rigorous 7-week online training that cultivated the process of creating CCDC solutions. During the course, our team interviewed employers, partners, staff, conducted surveys, engaged in brainstorming sessions, enlisted partners with fresh ideas, prototyped our ideas, and tested & gathered feedback from customers. Our team challenge was to focus primarily on how best to improve the coordination of all America’s Job Center of California (AJCC) Partners in supporting employer on-site recruitment efforts. Our team started this process by looking at the fact that we were not as integrated as we ought to be while serving employers through our AJCC’s. Our field research indicated that employers appreciate not being bombarded by numerous contacts from various staff. We realized each partner agency provided overlapping services to the employers which gave the impression we were individual agencies, not a One Stop Partnership. The results provided vast improvement on the coordination among all the partners around recruitment efforts.
Our team members consisted of Mona Baker (One Stop and WIOA Manager), Jason Ramirez (WIOA Department Business Specialist), Grace Schoch-Manzano (EDD Cluster Manager), Chris Cronan (EDD Employment Program manager), Eric Walker (ResCare Workforce Services), Andrea McGrath (WRC), Alice Razo (WIOA Adult/Dislocated Program Supervisor), Valarie Dhanens (AJCC Training Capacity Building) and Nancy Saengjaeng (TANF/CalWORKs & Project Lead).
Each proposal was evaluated and appraised by a team of workforce professionals from multiple agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Education, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Not only were we invited to the White House for the learning exchange and celebration, we were requested to be on the panel to showcase our work to all the winning teams! In addition, we were invited to participate as a Plenary Speaker at this year California Workforce Association Spring Conference in March 2016. We were also eligible to receive nearly fifty thousand dollars to perfect our prototypes. Lastly, winning teams are to be ambassadors to assist in disseminating CCDC best practices across the workforce development system.
